Field of the Invention
The invention pertains to a card reading device with a contact carrier part and a card carrier part; the card carrier part is formed with a card receiving portion for receiving a card to be read and being adapted such that it can be pushed together with the card inserted therein at least partially into or onto the contact carrier part.
Such card reading devices are, for example, the reading devices used in mobile telephones for receiving and/or passing on information provided by or for a so-called SIM card or a so-called SIM module.
SIM modules are used in mobile phones, in particular for subscriber identification. SIM is an acronym which stands for "Subscriber Identity Module". SIM modules are very well suited for use in mobile phones, in particular on account of their small dimensions (25.times.15 mm).
Card reading devices of the type presented herein may, however, also be card reading devices for reading "normal" chip cards.
The SIM modules, "normal" chip cards etc. which can be used in card reading devices are all cards containing chips, or chip cards, and, for the sake of simplicity, are henceforth referred to for short as cards; the operation of accepting and/or passing on information provided by or for a card is henceforth referred to, for the sake of simplicity, as reading the card.
Card reading devices, which comprise a contact carrier part and a card carrier part, which can be pushed into the latter or onto the latter, are well suited, inter alia, for use in mobile phones. This is so because, on the one hand, they are easy to operate and, on the other hand, they are very small.
Such card reading devices are easy to operate because the cards to be read can in each case be introduced into the card reading devices from outside, in other words without removing the battery or the like.
The card reading devices are small because, for example, the contact elements of the contact carrier part which are provided for establishing contact with the card to be read can be prevented from being short-circuited during the pushing in and removal of the card to be read into and out of the contact carrier part by the card (its contact areas) essentially by a special configuration of the card carrier part alone, in other words without large and complex mechanics.
On the other hand, however, in the case of such card reading devices the measures to be taken for removing the card carrier part from the contact carrier part may prove to be relatively complex. This is because, partly for aesthetic reasons, the card carrier part generally ends flush with the housing of the unit containing the card reading device when the latter is in the pushed-in state and, as a result, offers no point of attachment at which it can be pulled out again. To be able to remove the card carrier part from the contact carrier part, a special unlocking and ejection mechanism is necessary. This unlocking and ejection mechanism generally comprises a separate ejection button which, by means of a mechanism having springs, long linkages etc., releases a possibly present arresting means of the card carrier part in the contact carrier part and/or triggers an ejection of the card carrier part out of the contact carrier part. Such unlocking and ejection mechanisms notoriously take up a relatively large amount of space and, moreover, require a considerable outlay in the production of the card reading devices.